Tess Vigeland: Indulge me for just a moment this weekend while I wish Julie Vigeland the happiest of mother's days. I could not have asked for a more beautiful mom -- inside and out. I love you mom.
With that, I relinquish the microphone for someone else to express her appreciation, as commentator Jen Miller does for her mom, Mary.Jen Miller: I am my mother's daughter. We are carbon copies of each other, separated by 26 years. I see her every time I look in the mirror, and I think of her every time I put money away in my retirement account, make a mortgage payment or toss money into my emergency savings instead of buying something I don't really need.

My mom didn't graduate college. She took night classes, but she married young, and had four children by the time she was 30. When the youngest was in kindergarten, she temped and, within a year, had a full-time job as an administrative assistant for a financial planner -- a boon since, when my parents divorced, she needed to work.

She was about to take a certification exam to become a financial planner herself, when her father was rushed to the ICU. A hole had ripped open into his stomach and he'd suffered a stroke.

Still she took the test and, understandably, did not pass.

Further study went out the window as she helped care for him until he died. She did the same for her mother, who passed away a few years later.

Then the recession hit. Her investments tanked, and the value of her home dropped by nearly a third. She got a second job, working nights and weekends at a grocery store. Some members of our family whispered that they were embarrassed she worked there.

I was not. She did what she needed to do to keep saving for retirement, pay the mortgage and replace the roof on the house she still needed to sell. Which she did this year. She found a buyer almost immediately after it listed and then negotiated a blockbuster deal on her new home. In April, she quit the second job. She went to Ireland. She renewed her Match.com profile. At 57, she has made an amazing comeback.

I am proud of my mother. She has been an inspiration -- in both preparing for my financial future and the rest of my life.

About Me

Actor, Casting Director, Director, Broadcaster, Writer, Singer, Artistic
Director, Dramatur, Producer, Professor, Coach, Husband, Grandfather, Marketing
Professional and life long student Art Lynch joined the staff of John Robert
Powers in 1999. Lynch is also an adjunct professor at the Community College of
Southern Nevada, the Morning Edition Weekend Host for Nevada Public Radio and
one of 67 individuals who represent 126,000 actors as a member of the Board of
Directors of the Screen Actors Guild. He is the past president of the Nevada
Branch of the Screen Actors Guild and of the Professional Audio/Visual Communications
Association. A resident of Nevada since 1984, Lynch has an MA in Communications
from UNLV and a BA in Theater, Speech and Mass Communications from the
University of Illinois, Chicago. He is currently pursuing post-graduate studies
in theater, education and the entertainment industry. Art Lynch studied and
practiced the craft of acting in Chicago and California before settling in
Nevada. With his wife Laura, Art owned and operated a successful marketing
company with national clientele. Art was personally responsible for casting and
directing over 1,000 commercials and industrials, as well as assisting on film
and television projects in many ways. His career also includes earning awards
as a wire service, magazine and broadcast journalist. He is most proud,
however, of his daughters. Ann is a PhD in neuroscience and Beth is the proud
mother of his grandchildren, Evan and Elijah.

Short Film Festival

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